Anglicizing Tudor Connacht

The expansion of English rule in the lordships of Clanrickard and Hy Many

Joseph Mannion

"This very welcome book by Joseph Mannion offers the first monograph-length study of the impact of English colonisation on Connacht during one of the most formative periods in Irish history, taking the lordships of Clanrickard and Hy Many as its core case-studies [ ... ] Overall, this is a very impressive piece of scholarship and [it] represents an important contribution to the historiography of sixteenth-century Ireland." Simon Egan, History Ireland. 

“Dr. Joe Mannion’s new book, Anglicizing Tudor Connacht, is a fascinating account of the extension of Tudor rule into Ireland’s wild west. [ … ] One of the reasons Mannion’s account works so well is his intimate grasp of the region’s local history. It also helps that he is descended from the O’Mannion clan, one of the region’s lesser chiefs who underwent Tudor reform. [ … ] In short, this is a handsome volume. No doubt much of the credit for the volume’s appearance is down to Four Courts Press who have been to the forefront over the years in promoting work on the Tudor conquest of Ireland. But the volume also includes genealogical tables of the Burkes of Clanrickard and the O’Kellys of Hy Many, a very good index, and some decent maps - love the detail on Goghe’s map of 1567 on the dust jacket. What more could one wish for?” Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, vol. 77 (2025)


“This is a very welcome book. It helps to redress two prevalent distortions of the current historiography of Ireland in the sixteenth century. First, by drawing our attention to southern Connacht, it helps to counter the predominant geographical bias towards Leinster. Secondly, by exploring the lordship of the O’Kellys, alongside that of the adjoining lordship of the Clanrickard Burkes, it helps to counter the prevailing preference towards the study of powerful men of English descent in Ireland, as against people with Irish surnames. Dr Mannion’s book explores the expansion of English rule into the Clanrickard and Hy Many lordships in the sixteenth century ‘while endeavouring to establish the degree to which the implementation of crown policy in each was influenced by the ethnic origins of the ruling dynasties.’.” Henry A. Jeffries, Irish Historical Studies


“Meticulously researched and concisely presented, Joseph Mannion’s Anglicizing Tudor Connacht delivers a thorough account of the establishment and expansion of English rule in the lordships of Clanrickard and Hy Many, in present-day East Galway and South Roscommon. […] Mannion’s choice in discussing the anglicisation of Connacht as it related to the Clanrickard Burkes and the O’Kellys of Hy Many is expertly utilised, showing the parallel strategies these two lordships employed when interacting with the English crown and its administrators and how they can be viewed as exemplars of other Gaelic Irish lords at the time ...  Mannion expertly juxtaposes the two lordships throughout the book, but the stark differences in their approaches to enforced anglicisation and the received benefits thereof are particularly well presented.” Frank J. Hall, Irish Arts Review